An Army lieutenant colonel from Houston was among those killed when a suicide bomber rammed an armored bus in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Saturday.
LTC David E. Cabrera, photo courtesy of Uniformed Services University
David E. Cabrera was a clinical social worker with the Army’s Medical Service Corps. He leaves behind his wife, August, and four children.
“LTC Cabrera was a soldier’s soldier,” said Navy Captain (Dr.) Mark Stephens, who was David’s boss as chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. “He was professionally happiest when in the field with his troops. His sense of service, love of God, family and country are an inspiration to us all.”
Seventeen people died in Saturday’s attack on a NATO convoy in Kabul. The Department of Defense on Tuesday identified Cabrera as one of four soldiers killed. The other three were Sgt. James M Darrough of Austin; Staff Sgt. Christopher R. Newman of Shelby N.C.; and Carlo F. Eugenio of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Cabrera was born in Florida but grew up in Houston, where he graduated from Sam Houston High School.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Texas A&M University and joined the U.S. Army as a medical service corps officer in Jan. 1996.
Cabrera was the director of social work at USU. As an assistant professor in the university’s Department of Family Medicine, he saw patients, taught military medical students, conducted research on post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic growth, and participated in university field training exercises.
He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel at a small ceremony on September 1, surrounded by his family, friends, and close colleagues. On Sept. 30, Cabrera left the U.S. for Afghanistan. He had been in the country less than a month when he was killed on October 29.
LTC Cabrera is the 1,827th American killed in Afghanistan … Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden
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